I guess you could say there’s been some buzz lately about “personal branding”; the idea that communicating a “brand of you” to employers is potentially more helpful, and in some ways more telling, then the simple resume you write.

Now I am all about the idea of building a personal brand, but there are plenty more people out there that have already told it like it is in blogs and articles.  Like this thoughtful post from Krista Bradford, head of a leading executive research firm.  Or this one from Robert Scoble and Shel Israel on Naked Conversations.  Then there is Ola Rynge in Sweden whose whole blog is dedicated to personal branding. 

What’s interesting though is that the idea of personal brand isn’t new (check out this article on building a personal brand from Fast Company dating back to August 1997).  What is new is that people are starting to actually use personal brand to differentiate themselves in a market flooded with top talent and that there is a whole industry dedicated to helping you build that brand.

Since software engineers get a bad wrap for being social introverts, I wonder if personal brand is even something that you folks think about.  Are you out there building a personal brand and if so what is it?  Do you even think it is something that is important?  Or is this just another fancy buzz word that won’t go very far?